Band:	Dumper
Album:	Rise Of The Mammoth
Style:	Hard rock, Heavy metal
Release date:	March 2011

01. Dumper
02. Volts
03. Black Eyes
04. Drag Me To Hell
05. The Melting Eye
06. Rise Of The Mammoth
07. On And On
08. Lamb To The Slaughter
09. Ticket To Ride [The Beatles cover]
10. The Revenge Of Scylla

Dumper are a three-piece band (a so-called 'power trio') hailing from Italy. There's this rasping voice, those 'yeahs' and choruses designed to be shouted by a whole crew of drunk bikers? We're definitely in typical hard-rock territory!

There's quite a small problem, however: the vocals manage to be both great and catastrophic. Eddie Cantoni's voice has the hard-rock vibe for sure, this raw, whisky-abused tone that's just classical. But his singing drag everything down as soon as it gets slower... There's no energy, not unlike a 60 years old guy who's totally burned out. OK, OK, I exaggerate a bit, but not as much as I'd like to. Check the title track and its "It's the rise... of the mammoth... Yeaaah!" Then tell me it's not pathetic. On the other hand, the rare high-pitched parts fit nicely (like in "Volts"). Instruments-wise, the drumming's nice, the bass is catchy and powerful, the riffing is cool, the solos are hard-rocking great, no critics to be made, really... But they all manage to be lame on the aforementioned "Rise Of The Mammoth". The song is indeed really cohesive, the guitars lack energy because they follow the tired and pitiful vocals.

And this leads me to what bugged me the most with this album. It starts with energy (the first two tracks), but then the songs then drag themselves with a drowsy mid-tempo. And from "Black Eyes" to "Rise Of The Mammoth", time moves sooooooo slowly. You're like the mammoth on the cover, slowly sinking in a tar pit, and certainly not rising at all! It's a shame for sure, as there are pretty good songs in there, like "Volts" or the excellent closer "The Revenge Of Scylla". This last song is pretty great, could even make me say that this band's got talent, but kinda wastes it.

So well, nothing groundbreaking here (granted, that's pretty hard in this field), but this is a nice groovy hard-rock EP. Yes, EP: be sure to skip those sleep-inducing tracks!